Sarah Polley Speaks Out On Her Experience With Harvey Weinstein

The filmmaker wrote an op-ed in the New York Times.

Canadian Press

TORONTO — Canadian film and TV star Sarah Polley says Harvey Weinstein once suggested they have a "close relationship" in order to advance her career, but she turned him down.

In an op-ed in the New York Times over the weekend, the Oscar-nominated actress-turned-filmmaker wrote the encounter happened when she was 19 years old and starring in the 1999 Miramax film "Guinevere."

The Toronto native says she was doing a photo shoot for the film when the fallen Hollywood producer summoned her into his office.

When a publicist insisted she accompany the actress to the meeting, Polley says she "knew everything I needed to know in that moment, and I was grateful."

Polley says Weinstein told her if she had a "close relationship" with him, like the one he had with a famous star a few years her senior, she could have a similarly successful career.

But Polley told him she wasn't very ambitious or interested in acting and indicated that he was wasting his time.

Mike Blake / Reuters
Harvey Weinstein and his wife Georgina Chapman are seen in this undated photo.

Polley's piece, titled "The Men You Meet Making Movies," also outlines her observations about the way women are treated on film sets and notes Weinstein "was just one festering pustule in a diseased industry."

The op-ed was published as Weinstein faces mounting allegations of sexual harassment and assault in a saga that first broke in the Times.